European Court of Justice & Regulation (EC) No 261/2004: one step forward and two steps backward through bird strikes and information to the pax.

After the decision issued by ECJ in case C 315/15 on 4 May 2017 about bird strike which has been interpreted as “extraordinary circumstance”, the Court decided that Article 5(1)(c) and Article 7 of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that the operating air carrier is required to pay the compensation specified in those provisions in the case where a flight was cancelled and that information was not communicated to the passenger at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure, including in the case where that air carrier, at least two weeks before that time, communicated that information to the travel agent via whom the contract for carriage had been entered into with the passenger concerned and the passenger had not been informed of that cancellation by that agent within that period. The above said has been decided in Case C 302/16 on 11 May 2017.